An IFC View Definition, or Model View Definition, MVD, defines a subset of the IFC schema, that is needed to satisfy one or many Exchange Requirements of the AEC industry. The method used and propagated by buildingSMART to define such Exchange Requirements is the Information Delivery Manual, IDM (also ISO 29481).

The official Model View Definitions are published by buildingSMART using the neutral mvdXML format, the mvdXML delivery is integrated into the documentation package of the MVD accessible through this website. buildingSMART has develeoped the software tool ifcDoc for defining and documenting MVD's.

official Model View Definitions developed by buildingSMART

The following Model View Definitions are currently developed and are available as official buildingSMART Model View Definition:

Model View Definitions for IFC4

The two successors of the IFC2x3 Coordination View V2.0 designed for IFC4 are buildingSMART final standards.

The IFC2x3 Coordination View Version 2.0 can be extended by the following add-on model view definitions. An add-on view extends a base MVD by some small concepts that need to supported in addition to support additional exchange requirements. The currently defined add-on views include:

the Quantity Take-off add-on view - it adds the ability to transmit base quantities for all spatial, building, building service and structural elements.

the Space boundary add-on view - it supports the use case of using BIM in thermal and energy analysis by adding building element to space relationships.

the 2D Annotation add-on view - it supports the exchange of additional 2D element representations and annotations of building models

the IFC2x3 Coordination View (released - outdated as of Jan 2010)(Version 1.0 finalized in 2007 that had been the basis of IFC2x3 Coordination View Certifications until 2009)

Model View Definitions developed outside of buildingSMART International

Several other Model View Definitions are currently under development by organizations or development teams outside of buildingSMART International. They may be submitted to and accepted by buildingSMART International to become official buildingSMART International MVD's at a later point. Once accepted, those MVD's will be published here.

MVD development resources

buildingSMART International develops the ifcDoc tool to streamline the IFC and MVD development process. See MVD overview about news and how to download or join the development program.

The official buildingSMART software certification center, http://gtds.buildingsmart.com, also has the capability to create MVD documentation, link it to the certification test cases and rule checking and to export the mvdXML definitions.